How to allow non-super users to shutdown computer in Linux

Standard permissions do not allow regular users to shutdown a unix machine. Often it is useful to grant non-super users the ability to shutdown the server. there are a number of ways to do this. This is one.

Requirements

• Access to the root account

Method 1 (recommended)

This method uses sudo to allow a user to run shutdown as root.

1. Login as root
2. Add user to group, wheel, in /etc/group
3. nonsense deleted, never change permissions of /etc/sudoers"
4. Edit /etc/sudoers using "sudo visudo"
   • Add line:

     %wheel ALL= NOPASSWD: /sbin/shutdown

5. nonsense deleted

• Any user in group wheel, can shutdown computer by executing:

  sudo /sbin/shutdown ...

• Optional:
  • Add an alias for shutdown to have sudo

    alias shutdown='sudo /sbin/shutdown'

Method 2

1. Login or switch users to root

   you can switch users to root by typing su at a command prompt.

2. Edit /etc/groups
   • add a line for group shutdown and add your user name to it
   • Example: shutdown:x:510:yourUserName
   • Execute: groups to display you group membership
3. Change ownership of /sbin/shutdown giving access to group shutdown
   • Execute: chown root:shutdown /sbin/shutdown
   • ls -l /sbin/shutdown should display similar to the following

     ... root shutdown 19K Jan 23 10:50 /sbin/shutdown

4. Change permissions to allow the shutdown group read and execute permission.
   • Execute: chmod 750 /sbin/shutdown
   • ls -l /sbin/shutdown should display similar to the following

     -rwxr-x--- 1 root shutdown 19K Jan 23 10:50 /sbin/shutdown

5. shutdown can only be run by root so you need to have group shutdown execute the program as if you were root.
   • Execute chmod u+s /sbin/shutdown
   • ls -l /sbin/shutdown should display similar to the following

     -rwsr-x--- 1 root shutdown 19K Jan 23 10:50 /sbin/shutdown

6. To test execute: shutdown -k now and shutdown will pretend to shutdown.
7. To shutdown, execute shutdown -h now. For Details on this command, execute shutdown --help

Common Errors

• bash: /sbin/shutdown: Permission denied

  This means that shutdown does not allow your user or group to execute the file. try ls -l /sbin/shutdown, see howto change file permissions

• shutdown: you must be root to do that!

  shutdown will not 'shutdown' without being root is some form of 'sudo' or 'chmod +s'

• /etc/shutdown.allow, seems to only be used in inittab, and shutdown -a now does not work from terminal.
  
  
  From HowTo Wiki, a Wikia wiki.